The Marais — a cultural mix of Paris

Many words are written about Paris and more are said … Thanks to all this really interesting information many tourists are choosing this city as the venue for their vacations. We also hope that our materials will help you to make up your mind about the French capital. The topic of our today’s story is the famous Marais.

So, what is this Parisian district? For some people it is primarily a summer morning variety of stalls with vegetables and fruits gathered just a few hours ago in the picturesque suburban farms. Aborigines generally order their purchases in advance without fear that their favorite kilogram of “green” tomatoes can buy a “stray” tourist. Here the trays of fruit and vegetables can easily coexist with the book-trays, and nobody is no surprised. So it is the life of the Marais for a long time…

Today, in the Marais there are more and more tourists from abroad, but so fashionable quarter among these people it became recently. In many ways this can be attributed to the presence of interesting places here, such as the Place des Vosges, Georges Pompidou center of modern art and the museum of Pablo Picasso located in a historic mansion of Sale. Popularity of the quarter among the foreigners is confirmed by the fact that lots of shops that sell books in foreign languages work here. In addition in the Marais there are many cafes and restaurants where thousands of travelers and Parisians like to spend time. In the opinion of local residents the quarter has changed very much over the past twenty years.

In general, the Marais is translated from French as “swamp”. And in the reallity this place used to be swamps which first drainage was made by the Order of the Templars in the far thirteenth century.

Later the residence of the Royal family – the palace Turnel at the present Place des Vosges – was on the territory of the Marais. But when the Monarchs moved to the Louvre, and other nobles had started to move out. Thanks to such a migration this district became the residence of traders, artisans and workers for many years. And only in 60s of the last century the French Ministry of Culture decided to restore the ancient monuments what had led to the eviction of the Marais inhabitants-proletarians. But as people say, a holy place is never empty. And artisans and small traders have been replaced by the representatives of the rich French (and other) elites.

During more than thirty years the Marais is very popular among the sexual minorities. There is even a mini gay-area with many gay-bars nearby withthe Centre of Pompidou.

However, the main feature of this place is probably its internationalism. Here there is a unique symbiosis of completely different cultures on a relatively small area. Walking down the streets of the Marais, you should not be surprised if you hear French, Russian, Polish, Hebrew, Romanian, Hungarian, German or another language in one minute. All this is in order.

The Marais is the place where the unbelievable things happen, impossible becomes possible, and this is its uniqueness. But the most important that this place is always waiting for you!